Reports

Published on November 13th, 2014 | by Serapis

16

The Power of Pledge: A Philadelphia Top Cut Report

Hello, my name is Jeremy Rodrigues.  I’m relatively new to the competitive Pokémon community and even newer to the VGC side of things.  I probably started playing VGC about seven months ago and I instantly liked all of the freedom that doubles offered.  In particular, I was fascinated by strategies that involved field effects such as weather and Trick Room, seeing as they are much more viable in doubles than singles.

I spent a lot of time on Showdown down at the bottom of the ladder testing random stuff that any rational person would scoff at, but I enjoyed it.  One day, when I was looking for a new idea to try, I stumbled upon the Bulbapedia article on Pledge moves and I created the team that would eventually evolve into what I used at Philadelphia Regionals.

Before I go into the team itself, I believe it’s important to go over some Pledge basics.  Pretty much all you need to know is that, when Water and Grass Pledge combine, they form a Grass type attack with a Base Power of 160 and it creates a Swamp for three turns after it is used that lowers the speed of all opposing Pokemon by 50%.  If you want to know more about Pledge mechanics, I have a thread on it here.

Anyways, enough of that boring stuff.  Now, onto the team!

Greninja @ Focus Sash (Ranzou)
Ability: Protean
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Water Pledge
– Ice Beam
– Taunt
– Protect

Greninja, besides being essential for Pledge, proved to be a great team player.  Water Pledge is there to allow Venusaur to set up the swamp by increasing its speed, and Ice Beam is there for dragons, Garchomp and Salamence in particular.  Taunt used to be U-Turn and, before that, it was Dark Pulse, but I never used either of those two moves enough so I eventually settled on Taunt.  Taunt allows me to shut down some Trick Room teams and Pokémon that love to spam Thunder Wave, although Thunder Wave Gyarados suffered a massive drop in popularity since I added Taunt to the set.  Protect is simply there for the reliability, since I need a way to stop Fake Out and I don’t feel Mat Block would be as useful.  The spread is an incredibly simple 252/252/4 because I feel Greninja is best suited for speed and I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to survive with it that I could realistically achieve through EV redistribution.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite (Mystogan)
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
– Grass Pledge
– Sludge Bomb
– Sleep Powder
– Protect

Venusaur was one of my team’s two Megas and it was both the one I used the most and the one I liked the least.  Mega-Venusaur is a nice Pokémon, but I’ve never really loved it for whatever reason.  Anyways, I chose Chlorophyll as the ability because I thought I might use this Venusaur for something else at a later date, but it actually wound up becoming useful.  Grass Pledge is to allow for the Pledge combo and Sludge Bomb is the secondary STAB.  I chose Sleep Powder over Synthesis or Leech Seed because I feel both of those moves are two defensive for my highly offensive team.  Sleep Powder allows me to stop Pokémon I wouldn’t normally be able to touch and I actually used Venusuar as an impromptu Mega-Mawile counter in Round 9 of Swiss.  Just like Greninja, Protect is there simply because this is doubles and Protect is always a good option.

The 252/252/4 spread is because I wanted to have an offensive presence.  As you will come to see, my team struggles with Talonflame and I was aware that there existed a Mega-Venusaur set designed to survive Choice Banded Brave Bird, but I didn’t feel that being able to survive that was worth neutering myself offensive-wise, so I just went max Special Attack, Modest nature for the damage and max HP to give me quite a lot of bulk.

Chandelure @ Choice Specs (Lumière)
Ability: Infiltrator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpA
Modest Nature
– Heat Wave
– Shadow Ball
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Energy Ball

When I first was picking members for my team, I knew that I would have to hit incredibly hard.  The swamp created by Pledge only lasts for three usable turns, so I needed to take advantage of the time I had.  To find my two main attackers I literally went onto Seribii and looked at the highest base SpA and Atk stats and, for SpA, I found Chandelure.  Sporting an insane base 145 SpA and great dual STAB, it proved to be a great Pokémon.  Heat Wave and Shadow Ball were selected as the STAB options, Energy Ball was for Water coverage and Hidden Power Ice was for any Dragons like Garchomp and Salamence.

The EVs allow it to survive Jolly Garchomp’s Earthquake and Jolly Mega Kangaskhan’s Sucker Punch 100% of the time.  It also gives it the bulk to take non Adamant 252 Atk Gyarados’ Waterfall 100% of the time.  Really, it was just a good defensive number to be at.  The Choice Specs were selected to maximize damage output.

Haxorus @ Life Orb (Acnologia)
Ability: Mold Breaker
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Atk / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 21 Spe
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Dragon Dance

Haxorus, the team’s shiny, was also an MVP of sorts.  Quick shout out here to PokemonZone for getting me a foreign Axew as, otherwise, I would never have been able to get my shiny Haxorus.  Anyways, as the second Pokémon I selected to be one of my swamp sweepers, Haxorus used its insane Base 147 Atk stat to crush all in its way.  The moves are mostly self explanatory, except for the lack of Protect.  This was originally a Choice Band Haxorus, but after OHKOing my own Chandelure with Earthquake one too many times I switched over to Life Orb.  It was also at that time that I changed Outrage to Dragon Dance.

Now, Dragon Claw was necessary as STAB, Earthquake was a must because of Mold Breaker, Rock Slide provided a great way to deal with Mega-Charizard Y and Dragon Dance created win conditions.  Although Protect would have been useful, I felt that the moves I already had would be more useful in the long run and so I decided to forego Protect and simply run with the set I had.  I can’t say I regretted the decision.

Lucario @ Lucarionite (Rouge)
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Aura Sphere
– Flash Cannon
– Quick Guard
– Protect

The Lucario I decided to run at Regionals differs from the standard Lucario in two ways.  First, I decided to run a purely special set in order to be able to ignore Intimidate and not be neutralized by burns.  During testing, I took great joy in allowing my opponent to spend turns trying to burn my Lucario before I revealed that I was running a special set.  The second oddity about my Lucario is the move Quick Guard.  Quick Guard allowed me to hinder opposing Talonflame and it mainly functioned to stop Sucker Punches aimed for my Chandelure, but I’ll go more into that when I cover team combinations.  The moves and EVs should be self explanatory.

Zapdos @ Power Belt (Tempest)
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpA
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Roost
– Protect

Zapdos is simultaneously the Pokémon I used the least and the one I have the most to say about.  First off, I know the Power Belt makes no sense, but I’ll get to that later.  Second, I have to thank Alex (Stempe) for suggesting Zapdos as, even if I didn’t use it all that well at Philly, it was a good fit for my team.  Also, Tempest is an anagram of Stempe, which is how I got the nickname (Yes, I know Tempest has one too many T’s.  It was the best I could do).  Anyways, the moves were my attempt to function as bulky offense and speed control at the same time.  The EV spread. . . really, I have no idea where it came from or what it does.  I just ended up with it on Showdown one day and it was what I ended up using.  In its favor, it was able to take a Brave Bird and a Rock Slide from a Mega-Aerodactyl, so that’s something.

Well, now that you know the team, I’m going to go into a quick part about how I prepared for the Regional itself.

The Tournament

For the most part, I just battled on the Showdown ladder, but I also kept an eye out for who was on and tried to practice against other people I knew who were good.  I battled my friend Luka (Zephyl) a lot and practiced against Alex (Stempe) as well.  Among others I practiced with were Nightfront, Ezrl and Joey (joej m).  Actually, the Friday night before Regionals, I was on and battled Joey a few times. He won pretty solidly each time before he gave me some advice for the coming tournament.  That’s the hyper condensed version of my preparation. Now we get to the second thing you’re here for: the battles.  Sorry if anything is incorrect here, I’m pretty much entirely going off memory.

Round 1: Dakota

His team: Politoed, Aegislash, Blastoise, Manetric, Ludicolo and Gardevoir

I was really worried about my round one match even though I knew that it was the round I had the least to worry about.  I was starting way down at the end of the room, table 147 to be precise.  Since Haxorus has a base 147 Atk stat I decided to take it as a good omen.  Anyways, first turn my opponent led with his Politoed and Manetric while I led with Greninja and Venusaur.  Seeing a chance to get rid of what I suspected to be his Mega, I double Pledged into Manetric for the OHKO.  He didn’t Mega Evolve, so I started to suspect a Mega-Blastoise in the back, but I later found out that he didn’t even bring Blastoise.

After KOing Manetric, I was expecting an Ice Beam from Politoed onto my Venusuar, but instead he used—Swagger?  Well, he confused me and my Greninja, but I decided to roll with it.  Next turn he sent in his Gardevoir, which I quickly KO with a combination of Sludge Bomb and Water Pledge since my Greninja was able to hit through the confusion.  Once Gardevoir was down, his Politoed Swaggers my Venusaur, putting me at a 4-2 lead, but with both of my Pokemon on the field suffering from confusion.

Since Gardevoir went down, he had to reveal his last Pokemon, which turned out the be Ludicolo instead of Blastoise.  He Faked Out and Scalded my Venusaur for minimal damage while my Greninja proceeded to hit itself in confusion.  At this point I had one turn left of my swamp, so I double targeted Ludicolo with Sludge Bomb and Ice Beam for the KO.  I don’t remember if either of my Pokemon snapped out of their confusion, but the attacks went off.  Politoed once again used Scald on Venusaur for minimal damage.

With things now 4-1, I was feeling really good.  Deciding to end things with a bang, I used the Pledge combination to OHKO Dakota’s Politoed.  As it happens, it was the only time all day I would be able to set up my swamp for a second time.

Battle: 4-0

My Record: 1-0

Round 2: Julien

His team: Aerodactyl, Mawile, Charizard, Garchomp, Mamoswine, Hydreigon

So I finished Round 1 feeling all good about myself, only to come face to face with this terriflying team in Round 2.  Aerodactyl threatens my Pledge start because of Rock Slide flinches and Mawile gives my team all sorts of issues.  Still, I decided to stick with what worked and led with Pledge as he led with Garchomp and Mamoswine.

Now, I felt pretty good about this matchup and I was confident that Garchomp would Protect so I double Pledged into the Mamoswine.  Things didn’t go quite as expected, to say the least.  He withdrew Mamo and sent in his Charizard, to which Pledge did minimal damage, while his Garchomp used Earthquake, getting a ridiculous amount of damage off on both of my Pokemon.  I later discovered that his Garchomp was Banded.  After this, my memory sputters out and dies, all I can really say is that he also had Hydreigon and that this was one of my closer matches.  Julien was one of the people I talked with throughout the day and I know he finished with a respectable 6-3, which certainly helped my resistance.

Battle: 2-0

My Record: 2-0

Round 3: Matthew

Now, by this point, I had made my way up to the first table and I was getting really excited.  My Round 3 opponent had a super interesting team too.

His team: Exeggutor, Politoed, Rhyperior, Rotom-W, Doublade, Gengar

While it was an odd team, he was 2-0 like me so I knew he was doing something right.  Seing no real reason not to, I led with Greninja and Venusaur as he led with Politoed and Gengar.  Turn one, his Gengar Mega Evolves, which surprised me (even though it was his only possible Mega).  I believe I Mega Evolved Venusaur and got the double Pledge into Politoed for the OHKO as his Gengar proceeded to. . . Thunder my Greninja.  Thunder Mega-Gengar.  Needless to say, I didn’t see it coming.

Turn two, I’m pretty sure he sends out his Rhyperior.  If I recall correctly, I Ice Beamed the Mega Gengar and also went for the Sleep Powder on it, dealing over 50% and putting it out of the battle for awhile while his Rhyperior goes for the Rock Slide, taking out my Greninja and damaging my Mega-Venusuar.  Seeing that Chandy can do some work, I decide to send him in.

Turn three is pretty self explanitory as I OKHO Ryhperior with Grass Pledge and KO Gengar with Shadow Ball, placing me in a comfortable 3-1 lead.  He reveals his final Pokemon to be Doublade, which I easily one-shot with a Shadow Ball.

Battle: 3-0

My Record: 3-0

Round 4: Rob

His team: Pachirisu, Sableye, Florges, Aegislash, Hawlucha, Mawile

I literally have no idea what happened this battle, but I’ll do my best.  He brought Sableye, Aegislash, Hawlucha and Mega (surprise surprise) Mawile.  I think he led with Hawlucha and Mawile while I led with Greninja and Venusaur.

Seeing that Pledge wouldn’t do much here, I Ice Beam Hawlucha for the OHKO and Mega-Evolve Venusaur to go for the Sleep Powder on his Mawile as it Mega Evolves and I miss.  Still, I wasn’t worried.  He would probably just Iron Head. . . nope.  He sets up a Swords Dance and I proceed to freak out.  I just let a Mega-Mawile get up to +2 for free.  After that, I’m pretty sure he sends in his Sableye.

So, facing down a Mega-Mawile, I think I Protected my Venusaur, which blocked an Iron Head, and I get some damage (about 40%) onto his Mawile with Water Pledge.  Sableye Will-O-Wisps my Greninja, but I really had bigger concerns.  Next turn I think I went for the Sleep Powder, which missed again, and the Water Pledge, which did another 40% to his Mawile, but he OHKOes my Venusaur and Sableye did something, maybe Will-O-Wisp again.

This next turn is the only one I remember clearly.  I send in my Lucario and have just about resigned myself to taking massive damage onto one of my Pokemon, but then I realized that his Mawile was going to Sucker Punch and his Sableye was going to use a Prankster move.  And, wouldn’t you know it, I had Quick Guard.  Not seeing a way for it to go wrong, I used Quick Guard, which blocks the Will-O-Wisp headed for Lucario and the Sucker Punch aimed at Greninja, who proceeds to Water Pledge Mawile for the KO.

After that he sent in Aegislash and I doubled up on Sableye while sacrificing my Greninja to a Flash Cannon or Shadow Ball.  Fortunately, I had Chandelure in the back, which was able to OHKO his Aegislash with Shadow Ball, ending the match.

Battle: 2-0

My Record: 4-0

Round 5: Anthony (Chilebowl)

His team: Gardevoir, Salamence, Tyranitar, Rotom-H, Venusaur, Lucario

This was one of my harder matches, and sadly I don’t remember as much of it as I’d like.  Sorry about that Anthony, but you can correct me if I’m wrong.  Anyways, I know I led with Greninja and Venusaur and I believe he led with Tyranitar and Gardevoir.  I really can’t remember what happened, but the important part is that I lost my Venusaur while managing to get Pledge up.  Anthony spent the next four turns expertly dancing around my swamp until it disappeared.  At this point my memory becomes crystal clear and, considering the last turn of the battle, it’s no surprise.

I had my Mega-Lucario and Haxorus out on the field against his Salamence and Gardevoir.  My Mega-Lucario and his Salamence were both at full health, while his Gardevoir and my Haxorus were in the red and yellow respectively.  My Haxorus was at +1 speed thanks to a Dragon Dance, but was at +0 attack due to Intimidate.  Finally, I knew his Salamence was holding the Choice Scarf but, because Salamence had just switched in, he could lock himself into any of his four moves.

A mistake here would have cost me the match, but looking at the situation I felt confident that he would attack my Mega-Lucario, so I Protected.  Fortunately, I was correct and he used Flamethrower into the Protect and my Haxorus used Rock Slide for the double KO thanks to a critical hit on Salamence.  Still, even without the crit, I could have KOed Salamence next turn with Flash Cannon or Dragon Claw.

Anthony went on to finish 8-1 in Swiss and eventually placed 10th in the event, so congrats on that!

Battle: 2-0

My Record: 5-0

Round 6: Kris

Her team: Greninja, Salamence, Mawile, Rotom-H, Mienshao, Aegislash

I led with Pledge once more as Kris led with Greninja and Salamence.  Deciding to ignore the Scarf Salamence, which used Draco Meteor on Venusaur, I Pledged into Greninja, which I believe nets me the OHKO.  After that, I’m not sure what happened, but I probably made some switches and KOed her Mega-Mawile and Rotom-H with an Earthquake from Haxorus while her Salamence probably went down to an Ice Beam from Greninja.  I don’t really remember.

Battle: 3-0

My Record: 6-0

Round 7: Jeudy (SoulSurvivor)

I’m on a six game winning streak and who do I face round 7 but Jeudy, the player who finished 2nd at the 2014 World Championships.  Still, I wasn’t feeling all that intimidated. I thought I would do fine.  You can see this one for yourself though, since it was a feature match.  Enjoy the replay!

So as you can see, I didn’t “do fine”.  One last comment here before moving on, this was the round that I discovered that my Zapdos had the Power Belt as it proceeded to move before Jeudy’s Mega-Mawile under Trick Room.  I had brought Zapdos to my Round 1 match, but it never actually went onto the field so I had no idea that I had forgotten to give it Leftovers.

Battle: 0-4

My Record: 6-1

Round 8: Enosh (Human)

So, after that terrible performance I was ready to get my 7th win and make my way into Top Cut but, once again, I was paired with a Worlds player.  Really, Enosh scared me more than Jeudy because I had discussed my team with him at a Premiere Challenge we both attended, so he knew way more about my team than I would have liked.

His team: Talonflame, Garchomp, Manetric, Ferrothron, Politoed, Zapdos

With about 1/2 of a second left on the Team Preview timer I decide to just lead with Pledge, as he proceeds to lead with Talonflame and Manetric.  Now, I guessed that his Talonflame wasn’t carrying Choice Band because he wasn’t using one at the aforementioned Premiere Challenge, so I wasn’t in a terrible position.  Once again, I take up almost the full timer before I decide to just YOLO and Pledge into his Manetric, which did indeed turned out to be his Mega.  If it had connected, it would have been an OHKO, but he Protected as his Talonflame used Brave Bird on my Venusaur.  After that, he pretty much just cleaned up the rest of my team, but at least his Talonflame died to recoil so it wasn’t another 0-4 for me.

Battle: 0-3

My Record: 6-2

Round 9: Joey (joej m)

I’d been talking to my past opponents and I was able to determine that, if I could win Round 9, my resistance would probably be good enough to allow me to make Cut. But who would I have to battle?  There were a lot of good 6-2’s, one of them even being Cybertron.  Still, when I found out who I had to battle, Cybertron started to seem more appealing.

Remember Joey from the beginning of the story?  If Enosh knew a bit about my team, Joey knew double that plus some.  Not only that, but he had actual experience against my team, so I was pretty scared.  Still, nothing to do but play the game and hope to win.

His team: Malamar, Gothitelle, Ludicolo, Mawile, Nidoqueen, Salamence

This game I remember pretty well.  I led with Greninja and Venusuar as he led with Ludicolo and Gothitelle, a rather obvious Fake Out/Trick Room duo.  Turn one he Fakes Out my Venusaur, but I Taunt his Gothitelle and prevent Trick Room from going up.  It was fortunate that he forgot I ran Taunt, or else I would have had to rely on Venusaur landing the Sleep Powder I had also used on Gothitelle.

Turn two I double Pledge into Ludicolo for some pretty good damage as he Giga Drains my Greninja with Ludicolo and switches Gothitelle for his Mawile.  Now that the threat of Mawile and Sucker Punch is in play, I decide to Protect my Greninja and Sleep Powder the Mawile.  Thankfully, it works and my Venusuar just takes some Ice Beam damage from Ludicolo.  Now, it was at this point I decided to play the risky game called “ignore the Mega-Mawile and pray that it doesn’t wake up.”

The first turn goes well as I KO his Ludicolo with a combination of Ice Beam and Sludge Bomb as his Mawile slumbers.  After Ludicolo goes down, I can’t quite remember what he did.  What I do remember is that, when I went to set up my swamp for a second time, his Mawile wakes up and Sucker Punches my Greninja down.  The next turn my Venusaur lands another Sleep Powder though, so I go back to ignoring the Mawile.

I eventually KO the Mawile with something and, at some point, Sludge Bomb his Malamar. Much like Round 5, my memory really comes back into focus for the end of the game.  He had managed to set up Trick Room and I had my Mega-Lucario out on the field (bringing Lucario didn’t deter me from bringing Venusaur) with my Chandelure.  Both of my Pokemon were at full health and his Malamar was at 50% while his Gothitelle was probably a bit over 30%.  Unlike Round 5 though, I feel that Protecting Lucario won’t end well, so I Flash Cannon his Malamar.  As it turns out, I was right.  He had doubled into my Chandelure and managed to get the KO.

So now it comes down to a 1v1 between my Mega-Lucario and his Gothitelle in Trick Room.  The only reason I was able to win this is because his Gothitelle wasn’t at full health.  First, I Protect my Lucario to stall out Trick Room a little, in case I miss the KO. Then, I go for the Flash Cannon, which thankfully is enough to KO his Gothitelle and win me the match.

Battle: 1-0

My Record: 7-2

So, like I thought, my resistance was enough to let me make Top Cut. However, once I got there, I was pretty solidly defeated by Jonathan (MrFox) in both of games of the best-of-three.  Even though both ended 0-2 for me, he clearly had control of the matches and I don’t think anything can top that Round 9 match.  Really, clichés aside, I really enjoyed the journey to Top Cut even if I did get defeated immediately upon getting there.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank all of you for reading this.  I hope this was useful or entertaining and, if you ever decide to try Pledge, then I wish you the best of luck!

About the Author

Serapis

Related Posts

Memoirs of a World Champion: by 2015 World Champion SHADEviera →

The Other Fire Doge: A Top 8 Lancaster Report →

Blazing Forward! A Malaysian Regionals 2nd Place Report →

Top 4, Top 4, We’ve Never Used This Team Before →